Previously shy and introverted, her relationship with Van has done wonders for her confidence. She can still be a little nervous around strangers, but her stutter has all-but-vanished. She is still more at ease around Poesies and other non-Poe TGs than around others.

Costume:

none available as yet

Race:

English national; Caucasian by descent, but physically-Japanese (only noticeable in human form) since her change

(primary forms) Black hair, shoulder-length; Typically either worn straight, or with a single red bobble at the nape of the neck when usual hairstyle is impractical. Head hair is absent in quadrupedal form, but present in both bipedal forms.
Hair colour, length and style vary in secondary forms

Face:

human form: Eyes are set close together in the head. High cheekbones and thin eyebrows. Skin appears flawless, if somewhat pale. Her fennec ears may become visible in her human form if Rachel becomes nervous, agitated or surprised. At other times, she has complete control over the presence of her ears, and is able to manifest them or make them disappear at will.Vulpine biped form: Has a muzzle approximately three inches in length, and pointed canine ears approximately nine inches in length.secondary forms: Variable

Build:

Build is average, with a little baby fat and limited muscle tone, though this is improving with time; Middling B-cup bust. This remains consistent across all humanoid forms.

POB:

Liverpool, England

Assoc:

Poe resident, room 212 (roommate Zoe)

Creator:

DaWrecka

Other:

Suffers from Diedrick's Syndrome and asthma

General Description

Born to a baseline mother (or so he believed) and a metahuman father, Richard quickly became a curiosity when his eyes changed to a violet colour around the age of 4. Around the same time Richard manifested extreme mood swings, peaking at a level of impatience and irritability unusual even for a four-year-old and bottoming out at a worrying level of depression. This led to him being ostracised by his classmates, save one set of twins by the names of Lydia and Joseph who would go on to become his closest friends. Psychologists and mutant specialists were brought in after an incident when Richard was six in which he attacked a group of bullies using what appeared to be a small, floating gun turret. (He was spared expulsion purely by virtue of the fact that he had taken steps to ensure that the entire incident was recorded, and the recording clearly showed he was not the aggressor and his response was not disproportionate, although his turret was confiscated anyway) His mood swings were diagnosed as Diedrick's Syndrome, and his powers as level 2 Deviser. His lack of significant improvement from this level has puzzled doctors and scientists, however Richard gave them very few ways to assess his Deviser abilities - other than a rodent-like robot with considerable intelligence he named Rati, that he completed when he was ten, and improvements to Rati's build, he made very few devises over the next seven years.

Other than developing asthma somewhere between the ages of 8 and 9 little of significance happened until Richard was 13, when an estate ran a red light at speed and ploughed into the rear door of the car he was riding in with his parents and sister. His family escaped with relatively minor injuries, but Richard was critically injured and rushed to hospital, where he was stabilised but fell into a coma. He had been saved by the intervention of a kitsune with the aspect of a fennec fox, Richard's as-yet undetected Avatar state having attracted the spirit, who bonded with Richard in order to save his life. However the spirit in question was female, and this led to Richard changing into a bipedal fennec vixen over the course of the next eight weeks. Richard regained consciousness around the ninth week, though details of the spirit's aspects went unclarified for some time. After being contacted by Richard's father, Whateley asked the Grey Wizard, who was at that time conveniently between-jobs, to examine the young vixen. After he admitted to her that the odds of her ever becoming male again were slim at best, she (grudgingly) picked the new name of Rachel Lucy Parkes, after pointing out that she might as well make the effort to adapt rather than crying about it.

Within a week of her discharge from hospital, Rachel had been reintroduced to her old friends, Lydia taking the situation in stride and Joseph being rather disturbed, particularly by the ease with which Rachel had apparently adapted. Rachel would be grateful for Lydia's understanding, but Joseph's reaction would cause her considerable anxiety in the following months.

Not long after their visit, Rachel came into season, during which she found herself so desperate for sex (a desire which was rather deliberately, and forcibly, left unquenched) that all rational thought fled. Rachel's mental health was not helped by this, and she sank into a deep depression.

Grey Wizard intervened and brought Rachel to a person he claimed was an old friend. The old friend, a Japanese-looking man with bright flame-red hair who simply called himself Keiji, revealed himself as a fox spirit himself, one who had chosen to take a human form for reasons left unsaid. He gave Rachel a suppressing tea to control her heat, directions on making more of the tea as well as instructions on cultivating the plants involved, and taught Rachel more about her abilities. He also told her that the presence of the fox spirit was likely changing, or had changed, her personality, and that this was the most probable reason she had adapted to the majority of the changes with such ease. He also declared that she must learn to control her powers, a responsibility he had not the leisure to take up, otherwise burnout was a very real and likely possibility. Her father, surprising Rachel, agreed wholeheartedly. It took some time before he was able to convince Rachel, addled as she was, that he was sending her away because he loved her, rather than to get rid of her, though he did succeed… eventually.

By the time Rachel left for Whateley, Keiji had successfully taught her to shift into both a human and a quadrupedal form, though for some reason she was unable to take any forms but these and her bipedal vixen form, and they had learned that the tea, though it did not completely suppress her heat, did suppress it to the point where she still desired sex but retained rational thought.

Several months after Rachel's arrival at Whateley, it was learned that Eliza Whitley had made the connection between Derek Parkes and Dr Chekhov, a one-time A-list supervillain whose experiments in the induction of mutant attributes would have earned him a place on the MCO's hitlist had he not disappeared nearly two decades prior to its formation. Still, Derek and Dorothy, the formerly-unknown Lady Chekhov, reasoned that if they didn't get to safety immediately, then they may not get a second chance. They fled to Karedonia and, in hopes of convincing the MCO to leave Rachel and Clarissa alone, hatched and executed a plan documented here.

All went according to plan, unfortunately the MCO took the opportunity to make it look like the Chekhovs were publicly declaring war. It remains to be seen how successful the plan will be.

Appearance

General

Rachel stands five feet tall even in any of her bipedal forms, not counting the extra height from her animal ears or from high heels. Similarly her bust, waist and hips retain the same measurements. Her eyesight is poor enough that she requires spectacles to clearly see anything more than about six inches from her eyes. This is consistent regardless of her form.

Human form

In human form, she is not noticeably different from a Japanese teenager; Her cheekbones are high, her violet eyes close-set and her eyebrows thin. Formerly her tail remained present and visible even when Rachel was in human form, however following the events of Empty Dreams, this is no longer the case.

Vulpine

Her eyes are a solid black in appearance in vulpine forms; Though there is a distinction between her iris and her pupils, which are elongated and definitely canine in shape, this distinction is visible only from certain angles and in certain types of light. It's thus impossible to tell precisely where her eyes are pointed, more often than not. (She can make eye contact with you, but you can never tell for sure) She has thick fur which is a sandy-brown in colour all over save for her breasts, belly, throat and lower jaw, where the fur is beige. The fur inside her fox ears is quite thin and also beige in colour. Small pads are on each of her fingertips, with larger pads taking up a significant proportion of her palms, and similarly with her toes, heels and soles. Short, non-retractable claws are on the end of each digit, which she keeps judiciously-trimmed.
In both of Rachel's vulpine forms, she has three bushy fox tails, eighteen inches in length in her biped form. As a result of her former inability to hide her tail Rachel acquired a preference for skirts. Rachel's preference has changed a little since these events; On the one hand, in her human form her preference for skirts has not changed. In her hybrid form, however, the fact that she now has three tails has led to the fact that she cannot comfortably keep those tails under a skirt. Thus, on red days and most yellow days she uses her human form and a normal skirt; But on green days and other days she can get away with it, she uses her hybrid form and a skirt or dress with a hole cut in the area of the base of her spine, through which she allows her tails to protrude. She cannot vary the number of her tails; Either she is in a vulpine form and all three are present, or she is in her human form and none of them are present.

Quadruped

Her quadruped form was formerly-indistinguishable from a baseline fennec fox, save for the fact that she is a slightly large specimen. (roughly 1.8kg, while most natural fennecs range from 0.7 - 1.6kg, with her body being 46cm in length and her tail 22cm) However, with her extra tails she is now rather more noticeable. She is more comfortable in her vulpine forms, quadruped moreso than biped curiously-enough, and remains in these forms as much as she is able. She remains myopic, but, curiously, not as severely as in her biped forms. Corrective lenses are not an option however.

Midnight

The first of her secondary forms, Rachel's Midnight form is born of a picture she found online and to which she took an immediate shine. In this form she has the phenotype of a striped skunk. Her voluminous hair, which becomes waist-length, is a silvery-white in colour. A white stripe begins at her triangular nose, runs up her forehead, down the back of her head and down her back and much of the length of her tail, widening along the length of the tail with a band of blue fur roughly two inches wide all around the white area. Her fur coat, where it is not white, is a midnight blue in colour, hence the name. Her typical costume in this form consists of a black PVC-look leotard, low-cut but not scandalously-so, over which she wears a puffy off-white half-coat. It covers next to nothing of her midriff, exposing the vast majority of the black leotard. The front of the half-coat extends no lower than an inch beneath her breasts. Notably both garments are absent of seams, zips, buttons, or any other openings that you would expect to be necessary in donning such garments. She wears a knee-length white skirt which is not so much slit as it is 'absent' in the front; Roughly one-quarter of the circle of the skirt is absent in the front. The waistband of the skirt is fomed of a single circle of what appears to be more black PVC. A gold buckle on the front is the only opening on the costume; this allows her to replace the skirt should she so desire. A slit in the back allows her large, singular bushy tail to protrude. Her tail is typically held erect; It stretches from the base of her spine up to about four inches above her head then curves back downwards with its final eighteen inches of length. On her legs, she wears hip-length, PVC-look, skintight boots with five-inch spike heels. (Initially four-inch) The boots, moreso than the leotard, vest, or skirt, are clearly not designed to be removed by normal means, lacking zips or any other openings, being clearly so skintight as to be impossible to simply pull off, and being too inflexible to stretch any more than is necessary to allow Rachel to walk. Her bust, waist and hips retain the same measurements, and she appears to be 5'5" tall only due to her heels. Her myopia remains in this form, and thus she wears rectangular glasses. She considers this form impractical, (mainly, but not entirely, because of the heels) but she will not hesitate to use this form whenever it amuses her. She particularly enjoys the extra height from her heels, though not the sore feet. She is working on another revision, one with six-inch heels and a two-inch platform. She would also like to replace the skirt with one that is shorter, but not open in the front, though has not been successful thusfar

Rachel has also gained the ability, after some trial-and-error and mishaps, to take two variants of her Midnight form; One without a costume, and a second with the heeled boots alone. In the former case her clothing will be completely unchanged from whatever she was last wearing in her primary forms. In the latter case the same applies, except her footwear will change into the high-heeled boots. She still considers her fennec forms to be the real 'her', but she is quite fond of her skunk forms.

Unless otherwise stated, Rachel will begin most RPs in her bipedal fennec form, dressed in the Whateley uniform.

Powers

Deviser

Rachel's Deviser ability remains largely-untested. Though to date she has created a power generator which does not appear to require any external input, including fuel, and created what appears to be a highly-intelligent AI capable of understanding complex vocal instructions and learning, she has done very little besides this. (however the powers testers know the reality, which is the main reason they don't find her as interesting as they might) The power generator, while interesting, has neither the energy density nor the stability to really get worked-up about, although Rachel has been working on improving this.

In reality, Rati is actually a minor spirit bound to the chassis Richard created, who simply happened to be in the right place at the right time to bond with the machine. The bond was initiated by the spirit, Richard had no control over it. Rachel had no idea this is the case, likewise had no idea how it happened, and wouldn't be able to reproduce it if she tried, even though she could, if she so wished, duplicate every other aspect of Rati's chassis. Rachel formerly-believed that she was wholly responsible for Rati, including what she believed is his AI, and Rati was in no hurry to disabuse her of that notion; However, upon undergoing testing at Whateley the reality was soon learned. To say that Rachel was surprised is something of an understatement. Their relationship changed little after this revelation, however. Unsurprisingly it is unknown how the spirit was able to bond with the rat-bot in such a way as to have total control of its systems. There is some curiosity regarding what was special about the Rati-chassis that made it a suitable home, but Rati's not talking. There is little to stop him leaving if he were so inclined; He stays with Rachel because she treats him well.

Avatar

Rachel is bound to a nine-tailed kitsune named Flora. This is not her true name, merely the latest of her use names. As a nine-tails Flora is a very powerful spirit. However, when she bonded with Richard she was profoundly-weakened. Rachel's command of Flora's powers is thus limited. Rachel had a single tail at first, but now has three tails; At the same time as this occurred, Rachel's powers and abilities improved. Thus, it is a safe assumption that the number of tails she has is directly-related to how much of Flora's abilities she can command, and how well.

Wizard

Three abilities are tied to Rachel's inherited Wizard ability, although all three fall under the umbrella of 'magic'. Rachel's greatest affinity is in the working of illusions, though her limits remain untested; She can use her magic to heal injuries; And she can use her magic to generate foxfire. All three of these are instinctive for Rachel, but limited by her reserves of quintessence. Her foxfire is limited in strength, though quantifying this strength is difficult, as it seems to grow daily, albeit gradually. Her healing abilities allow her to match that of a Heal-2 mutant for around two minutes, or Heal-3 for one minute, after which she becomes too exhausted to continue. This, like her foxfire, appears to grow in strength with each passing day; The difference is measurable, but minute. She can use other schools of magic, but while she she has a considerable reservoir of essence and her abilities allow her to learn more easily than a baseline mage, she is no better at using such magics once learned than a baseline mage.

Testers believe her power level and endurance will improve in time, but are unwilling to speculate as to the specifics. It can be seen, certainly, that the strength of Rachel's foxfire saw a marked increase following the events of Empty Dreams, which was accompanied by a gain of two extra tails. All of these abilities are linked to her Wizard ability, and are restricted to the same 'pool' of energy, thus cannot be mixed extensively. It is also for this reason that they are not rated seperately.

Shifter

Rachel's shifting ability is not limited by stored Essence. She has three basic forms; Japanese-appearing human, bipedal vixen, quadruped vixen. Her quadruped form is her preferred form, though she likes her bipedal vixen form only slightly less and thus spends as much time as she can in her bipedal vixen form for the practical value. Following the events of Empty Dreams, Rachel's shifting abilities saw a marked improvement. Before, she was able to take only one of these basic forms; Afterwards, she has demonstrated an ability to acquire other forms. For the purposes of this document, the human, fox and hybrid forms will be referred to collectively as 'primary' forms, while all others are termed 'secondary' forms.

Abilities and limitations

Rachel can, in theory, take any form at all, or at least will be able to do so eventually. In practice, there are some limitations on her abilities;

She can make whole form changes only. These forms may or may not include clothing but must be complete; She cannot, for example, alter one arm while keeping the rest of her body unchanged. The one exception may be Rachel's control over the presence of her fox ears in human form, and this is speculated to be less a shifting ability, and more 'natural magic', or alternatively a glamour, intended to encourage the observer to overlook incongruous features, such as a fox's ears on a human. It should be stressed that this is speculation alone, pending more extensive examination by the Mystic Arts department.

Rachel can take mammalian forms only. She can choose to take a humanoid or non-humanoid form, but the form in question must be fundamentally mammalian. Humans, skunks, foxes, rats, these are possible; Avians and reptiles are not. Nor are inanimate objects of any type. Again, this is a limitation that Rachel is expected to overcome in time, but the timescale is beyond speculation.

She cannot shift any complex non-organic parts. Giving herself power armour, for example, is impossible. Shifting clothing formed of fabric, however, is within her abilities, depending on the complexity of the material. The only exception to this limitation is complex non-organic parts Rachel was wearing to begin with. If Rachel is wearing her bracer, for example, then when she shifts she can choose to include the bracer or not in her target form. Simple non-organic parts, for example the buckle on a leather belt, are possible. The reason for this limitation is unclear.

The only non-organic parts Rachel can form in their entirety must be no more massive than approximately 200 grams. (though the precise limit is near-impossible to ascertain) They must also have simple structures. A breastplate is impossible, likewise a shield; A projectile weapon, even a simple crossbow, would be just as impossible irrespective of mass. A belt buckle, being both light and of minimal complexity, is do-able.

The more times Rachel has taken a given form, the easier it is for her to take that form again. Conversely, if she has not taken a form before, then the first time she shifts into that form is difficult. Failure to take a form is not dangerous to Rachel's health, thanks to Flora's intervention, but this failure can manifest in other forms - such as Rachel's shape failing to change but her clothing disappearing, or her shape changing and her clothing remaining unchanged. Rachel does not practice her shifting in public for this reason; If she appears in public in any given form then she will have practiced it in private. What this limitation means is that Rachel cannot take a 'combat' form at a moment's notice; But given sufficient time to practice the form in advance, she can.

Alterations of existing forms, including those alterations limited to clothing alone, count as entirely-new forms as regards the limitations involved. Additionally, the greater the difference between the target revision and the original form, the more difficult it is to take that form. Once modified, a form is set once more. For example, Rachel's Midnight form initially had boots with four-inch heels. She was able to modify this to five-inch heels. However, whenever she takes any variant of the Midnight form with the boots, they will have five-inch heels.

Clothing Rachel acquires by shifting cannot have any sensation; It dulls the feelings of the skin underneath the same way the material would were the costume to have been purchased. A leather glove Rachel has shifted into will be just as detrimental to her sense of touch as a leather glove she purchased from a baseline clothing store.

Clothing Rachel acquires by shifting is not guaranteed to be removeable. Should Rachel take the extra time to ensure the costume has openings, such as zips, buttons, et cetera, then the clothing can be removed and, if desired, discarded. However, in the event that Rachel neglects to consider this, as she did with the Midnight form, the clothing may be impossible to remove normally. Adding openings for this purpose counts as modification of an existing form, with the difficulty listed above.

Skills

Rachel has exceptional senses of hearing and smell regardless of her form; She is able to hear whispered conversations from the other side of a concert hall even in human form, and can hear the pulse of anyone up to about half that distance away. She can detect scents that human noses have no hope of detecting, even in human form, though she is, as yet, insufficiently-practiced to be able to make consistent sense of the information; in time, this and her hearing may give her pseudo-empathic ability, though much practice will be needed before this is anywhere close to reliable. Her vulpine eyes give her keen night vision; though she is quite severely myopic, she can see equally-well in minimal light as she can in daylight. (though she cannot see into the infrared or ultraviolet ranges) In recent times she has gained the ability to control the presence of her fennec ears while in human form; However some individuals may be able to 'see' her ears regardless. The criteria for this vision remain unclear. The ears sometimes show up in Rachel's shadow, too, but not always.

Equipment

First aid kit

A case which contains medication for both her Diedrick's and asthma. If she has a handbag or other form of bag, she will carry a small case (coloured white with a red cross on the front) inside that bag; otherwise she will carry a larger first-aid case with a shoulder strap.

Rati

Arguably fits here; Rati has a low-energy plasma projector built into his mouth, (capable of inflicting moderate superficial burns on baselines, but little more; Not that this prevents her from using it for intimidation value) as well as video recording equipment built into his eyes and audio recorders built into his ears. Typically lives on Rachel's shoulder or in her blazer pocket, though she has a small bed for him to 'sleep' in at night, (one sized for a small-sized dog and able to comfortably accomodate both Rachel in her quadruped form and Rati) and is capable of short-range levitation for short periods. (limits remain untested) Externally he appears to be a brown rat, if an eyebrow-raisingly large specimen, in every way; Rachel is allowed to keep him since he is not really a pet. (though this is not how it appears at first glance to other students) It remains unclear whether he could function as a familiar to Rachel, and to what extent.
Rati is in constant contact with Security's computer systems; Not long after Rachel's arrival, it occurred to her that being able to prove exactly what happened in a given situation was an absolute godsend given her condition. So she spoke to Chief Delarose about it; They set up a small partition on the security servers, to which Rati is constantly uploading what he sees and hears. This has the disadvantage that Rachel can't perform any pre-emptive or revenge strikes because she knows that security will find out, and the advantage that anyone who jumps her WILL be caught by security. Except perhaps Shifters. Rati likewise has the ability to contact security in emergency situations and provide a locator to assist Security in finding the situation.

Gauntlet computer

Not long after the events of Empty Dreams, Rachel and Clarissa each received one of these as a gift from their father. Not much has been established at this point. The gauntlet compromises a black glove attached to a computer, with a strap at the elbow end and another midway between the glove and the elbow strap. When closed, the computer resembles a black box, 20cm x 8cm x 5cm. Rachel's gauntlet is long enough to reach from Rachel's elbow to her wrist. The gauntlet, when viewed from the top, has a height of approximately three inches, a length of approximately seven inches, and a depth of three inches. The last five inches (starting from the elbow-end) has two catches, which when released allow the top of the device to lift up to show the screen and keyboard, along with a small trackpad, although most of the programs are written to be controllable entirely with the keyboard. The back of the screen is a thick sheet of an unspecified metal, intended to protect the screen and work as a sort of makeshift shield in certain situations. The front two inches of the devices house a removable module. Their father included a torch module, (flashlight for our transatlantic cousins) but in theory there are a wide variety of modules that could be produced for this. Of those on campus only Rachel has the schematics, protocol specifications and suchlike that would be necessary to produce such a module. Though she has them in a digital form, she keeps the documents involved on a removable card that she hides when she is not using it (such as when sleeping) and the documents are encrypted using a key only she knows. Anti-tamper systems prevent the gauntlet from being used by unauthorised persons, though exactly what form these take is not clear. The computers themselves are of an unknown specification, but Rachel has mentioned that they have a 'big SSD', though the precise capacity remains unspecified, and that the systems are 'top-of-the-line, by portable standards'. The gauntlet has a cable allowing it to be connected to any computer supporting mass storage, whereupon a partition of its internal storage (the size of which must be configured from the gauntlet) will show up on that computer as if it were a USB thumbdrive or similar. It can also support external programs, though these programs have to conform to some tight specifications otherwise they will be executed in a tightly-controlled sandbox; Only those programs conforming to the right specifications can access the gauntlet's more esoteric functions.Summoner has expressed interest in equipping Circle-S with the gauntlet computers; Unfortunately Rachel doesn't have the knowledge or skill to build them herself, and has her doubts about how cheaply her father would be willing to provide them. She has yet to raise the possibility to her father of equipping the Gatekeepers with them.

Shock drone launcher

After considerable time spent designing and testing, Rachel successfully designed semi-autonomous drones and produced six of them. These are kept within tubular launchers which are attached to the sides of Rachel's backpack, three in each tube. The launchers are little more than metal tubes with some holes to allow electrodes to interface with the drones. A small processing unit stored in the backpack connects to the electrodes, which make contact with such parts on the drones while they are inside the tubes, and transmits raw data via Bluetooth to Rachel's bracer, which interprets and translates this data into readable information concerning the drone's battery charge, damage and suchlike on the bracer's screen. The drones have fake autonomy; In reality they are in constant contact with Rati, who controls the drones while in use. The drones are capable of flight at a height of up to ten metres, a maximum speed of 8 metres per second, and a maximum acceleration of 10 m/s². The drones have full freedom for rotation and movement, able to adjust their angles with more precision than simply 360 degrees, allowing them to target anything within line-of-sight.
The drones themselves are built on what is almost certainly an invalid principle from the perspective of true science. The drones have two barrels. Both barrels use what Rachel terms "magnetic bottles" to set up a path for the electrical impulse to travel. The drones are able to use feedback from the process to alter their output to adjust for more resistant targets, but they are still limited. In short; The shots can stun an Exemplar-5 or equivalent for a few seconds, with weaker targets remaining stunned for longer. Battery life is a concern; At the level where an Exemplar-5 is affected, the power cell is only able to sustain three shots. A fourth shot would both be much weaker, and cause the drone to fall from the sky; Failsafe systems prevent firing a shot and cause the drone to return to the launcher when the energy level drops below a pre-set threashold.
Since learning of Wyvern's having secured a wetsuit, Rachel has revised the drones. Three are now equipped with Kinetic Burst modules of equal power to the rifle below, while the remaining three have retained the taser module.

Kinetic Burst Rifle Mk.I

This is not an item that Rachel carries frequently; Its size and bulk makes it impractical for this. The Kinetic Burst Rifle is a weapon Rachel designed in hopes of combating Wyvern after she learned that Wyvern had taken to wearing a wetsuit that would essentially render her drones useless. The Kinetic Burst Rifle is an energy rifle that has some basic motion compensation (to reduce the probability of missing a target) and fires a mostly-invisible (certain sensitives may see a pulse of psychokinetic energy) beam which causes every molecule in the target's form to experience a sudden acceleration away from the rifle, the combined kinetic energy of which can be compared to that of a collision with a pickup truck. To date, it has not been field-tested, making Rachel a little wary of using it.

Shock pistol

A handgun based on the taser drone design. Like the drones it has the same twin-barrel setup, uses magnetic bottles to control the path of the electrical impulse, and has the same feedback-adjustment and output capacity. Its capacity is a little higher than the taser drones, due to the lack of requirement for propulsion.
It has occurred to Rachel that she may be able to enclose one magnetic bottle within another, and thus make a single-barrelled version of the shock drones and shock pistol. She has begun to make efforts in that direction. She intends to turn each of the double-barrelled drones into two single-barrelled drones if she is successful, and similarly turn the shock pistol into a single-barrelled version.

Mind Shield

This is a charm that Rachel managed to create after several attempts. At this time the charm takes the form of a teardrop-shaped, violet-coloured gem hanging from a delicate gold-plated chain. The charm adds a shield over her mind, blocking the vast majority of psychic probes. It does not, however, make her a psychic null, and particularly-powerful telepaths can still probe her with some effort. (though the shield will dramatically-reduce the amount of her thoughts that can be read) The charm is basically non-existent to Fubar, but then Fubar is a special case.

Utility belt

A recent gift from Gauss. This is a Mobius-variety belt, meaning the pockets are much larger on the inside than on the outside. It does, however, make Rachel a little reluctant to shift into a secondary form, as she has no idea what will happen to it if she does.

Personality

Despite the suppressing effect of the tea on her heat, she remains frightened that she will lose control again. The idea of sexual penetration no longer frightens her, though it still something she is not eager to experience just yet. She remains shaken by the fact that Joseph, a boy she had come to regard as a brother, and who in fact had deliberately ignored Richard's repeated mood swings and snappishness to get to know him, had begun to deliberately avoid her in the short period between their reintroduction and Rachel's leaving for Whateley. Combined, these factors initially made Rachel introverted and afraid to make friends for fear they will do the same when they learn of her past. (She could open up to other Poesies easier than anyone else for obvious reasons, but is still shy) She spoke seldom unless spoken to; When she did speak, she spoke so softly that many people have to strain their hearing to understand her. However, since arriving at Whateley, her friends have given her a significant amount of confidence. And although she remains worried of what might happen if she forgets her tea, acquiring a boyfriend has done wonders for her confidence.

Rachel's fear of sex, particularly the idea of penetration, made her heat difficult to bear at the best of times, and she was prone to depression during these times. Though these feelings are less strong now, perversely she is afraid to be around Van at these times too, who would ordinarily be able to cheer her up considerably, because she fears her feelings for him combined with her hormones will overwhelm her sensibilities. The idea of becoming a mother no longer frightens her, but the idea of being a teen mother does.

In summary, she is more at ease around Poesies of any gender, though boys, unless she knows they are not attracted to her, still make her more nervous than girls. Around non-Poesies, she is wary around female strangers, and more-so around male strangers. The effect of these 'comfort zones' is magnified during her heat.

Weaknesses

Normal human weaknesses. Fairly-severe myopia means she is virtually blind without corrective lenses. (typically she wears one pair of glasses and keeps another spare in a pocket/bag) Her asthma can be set off by smoke and certain other gases, or when she becomes excessively nervous or stressed; Diedrick's exacerbates her nervousness and makes her quick-tempered, though she has relatively few hot-buttons. Consequently she is prone to panic attacks, and those panic attacks frequently lead to severe asthma attacks (usually requiring hospitalisation) unless averted quickly. These panic attacks have become less frequent and less significant over time. (but see below) She may appear to have vulpine features beyond her ears and tails if she is in human form, or human features in quadruped form, to certain individuals, but the criteria are not yet clear.
Rachel is terrified of dogs and dog-like humanoids; However this does not, curiously-enough, extend to wolves. This fear comes primarily from her passenger, as she herself has no actual reason for this fear. Exactly how she will react to any given dog varies as much as dogs themselves, but in general the bigger and more aggressive a dog is, the more frightening it is to Rachel. (An aggressive terrier is about as frightening as a passive Alsatian; Spot would drive her to panic on sight, unless he was far away) However, it is very easy for her to experience a Diedrick's episode in the presence of any dog, particularly if that dog pays any attention to her.
Rachel's canine physiology has led to her having what amounts to an allergy to theobromine. This means she cannot eat chocolate, and she cannot drink anything caffienated. Per Wikipedia:

"The first signs of theobromine poisoning are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination. These can progress to cardiac arrhythmias, epileptic seizures, internal bleeding, heart attacks, and eventually death."

This inability to process theobromine is consistent across all of her forms; However, her humanoid forms have a poor reaction to theobromine even when, by mass, they should logically be fine. Or perhaps not; What is known is that Rachel ate a fairly-small slice of a chocolate cake while in her human form and almost didn't survive the experience. What is NOT known (though could be tracked if the catering staff could be convinced of the necessity) is the proportion of baking chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and cocoa powder in the cake's recipe. However, she also once drank a diet cola without ill effects. Ultimately her LD is as-yet unknown; All that is known is that she has a considerably lower tolerance than a baseline.

Close friends

Friends

Cautious friendships

Acquaintances / neutral relationships

Individuals Rachel has met in passing, but has had limited or no interaction with. Alternately, those with whom Rachel is familiar, but considers them neither friend nor enemy, or that she used to consider an enemy but now views in a more neutral light.

Family

History (incomplete)

Rachel has been involved in a fair number of RPs to date, but only a handful have had much in the way of lasting consequences.
(in chronological order based on date in real time the scene occurred)

(RP date 2010-03-09) On her first day, Rachel met Dawn and Euryale in the Poe common room. (Retcon: Rachel's eyes in human form have changed from that initial foray. Rachel also stated that Flora had never spoken to her; This has been retconned into a single speech immediately after the car accident, followed by a long period of silence from Flora while she recovered her strength)

(RP date 2010-03-10) Rachel runs into Zoe, Alexia, Spelljack, Subtle, and Patches while they are en route to see Riley in Hawthorne; It can be assumed that Rachel had not yet met her roommate at this point, placing it on Rachel's first day. Patches bows out before reaching Hawthorne; Rachel introduces Rati to the remaining players.

(RP date 2010-03-20) Zoe hides Rachel's conservative one-piece swimsuit on the day of the pool party, and arranges things so Rachel winds up taking a skimpy blue bikini instead. Rachel has a Diedrick's episode during the pool party, triggered by Leviathan. It is defused by Wilson without bloodshed, fortunately. Rachel's crush on Pipeline has its seeds sown here. Rachel, Riley and Zoe retire to room 212 in Poe to talk about some not-quite-PG13 things.

(RP date 2010-03-21) Rachel, in her four-footed form, engages in a little faux-Parkour with Evey and Dawn. All three retire to Evey's room in Poe afterwards to talk. Dawn surmises that Rachel, or someone close to her, has changed genders, though her hunch is not completely confirmed; This is assumed to be in the days following the pool party. (This scene was never finished due to network problems)

(RP date 2010-03-26) Gauss visits Zoe in their room in Poe. Rachel arrives while the two girls are trying to extract Pinball so Gauss can see her. Gauss and Rachel engage in a brief 'how much can we confuse each other with our native dialects of English' contest which Gauss wins. Gauss notices that Pinball does not seem like a normal cat, even though Pinball engages in some decidedly feline behaviour such as going bananas over a catnip mouse bought for her by Zoe.

(RP date 2010-03-27) Rachel crashes into the outskirts of a barely-averted brick fight between Lylah and Ashley. Rachel's crush on Pipeline is cemented here. Gloria informs her that a company she represents is looking for Devisers and offers to put Rachel in contact; Rachel, fully-aware of the drawbacks of devises, is suspicious. Gloria leaves a card with Rachel. Pipeline walks Rachel back to Poe. Rachel does not appear to have problems with the idea of being attracted to a boy, merely telling herself "Down girl, he's taken".

(RP date 2010-03-31) Rachel meets Van for the first time, over a miniturret created by MacGuffin. She also meets AlleyCat again. The three try to figure out the puzzle that is the miniturret. Pipeline joins the group after the miniturret takes off. They meet up with Ditto, who takes the miniturret away. Pipiline walks Rachel back to Poe, and agrees to go on what she wishes was a date.

(RP date 2010-04-02) Rachel is dragged to the Crystal Hall for breakfast by Gauss; She meets Ashley and Terry. (despite Rachel's protests after a display of Ashley's displeasure with her father, Gauss insists that they will sit with Ashley and Terry) Rachel manages to let a few one-liners go, though the other students are not terribly-amused. Van makes a brief pass at Rachel, which Rachel quickly snubs. Zoe meets Van for the first time since his gender-bender, and unwittingly outs him to Terry. Rachel and Van leave for Poe together, after Rachel angrily informs Zoe "You're on damage control."

(RP date 2010-04-03) Rachel and Van have a friendly conversation in Crystal Hall over a meal. (time of day; unspecified) AlleyCat joins them and quietly admits to Van that she was formerly male. Rachel tries to pull off a selective anti-eavesdropping spell; (after getting the idea from Fey) After her failure, the two girls and one boy retire to Rachel's room in Poe to talk some more; Rachel reveals her own TG status to Alice at this time. (Rachel incorrectly states she has been a girl for a couple of months; more accurately, it has been two months since she regained consciousness following the car accident and began living as a girl)

(RP date 2010-04-07) Rachel is dragged out to the woods by Gauss. Wyvern decides it would be funny to freak her out, ignoring Lightstep's complaints and successfully pushing Rachel into a Diedrick's-charged panic-and-asthma attack. Wyvern is remorseful, a rare situation given their later antagonism. Lysa intercepts a message from Gauss' cellphone to Zoe regarding Rachel's medical problems, which have stabilised by this point.

(RP date 2010-04-09) Rachel reports as a volunteer in Hawthorne. (She claims that she escaped detention for an unspecified offence because of security's conclusion that she could have done nothing to prevent the episode) She meets up with Alleycat and, for the first time, Tegan Wissa. Rachel is assigned to paint Carol's room, a job she does not do terribly-well at. Wyvern drops off a dresser and vanishes without making any attempt to help get it in the room. Tegan makes a habit of teleporting right on top of Rachel; Miraculously Rachel does not react too badly to any of these. Rachel asks Tegan about Gloria Whitley's offer, and is made more suspicious by Tegan's apparent dancing around the subject.

(RP date 2010-04-10) Rachel is in the quad, trying to figure out a codename. Flutter and Pipeline come by and help her out; Eventually Rachel winds up with the codename of Outfox. Rachel concludes at the end that she can't even bring herself to dislike Flutter.

(RP date 2010-04-11) Rachel goes to the gym, with MacGuffin, Cocina, and Richard Grey being there already. She is rather more scantily-clad than she's comfortable with, but more clothing is impractical in the situation. Rachel learns Subtle's real name for the first time. She finds it increasingly difficult to concentrate on her exercise as the conversation around her continues. Gauss comes in and her gym clothing causes Rachel to lose her concentration entirely, resulting in Rachel losing her footing and being carried off the treadmill into a heap against the wall. Lottie gives her some healing afterwards, taking on some of Rachel's injuries in the process. Rachel and Lottie go off to a hot tub to help soothe the pain thereafter.

(RP date 2010-04-16) Rachel observes a little meeting between Wyvern, Lightstep and Ashley due to her suspicions about 'birdbrain', though nothing ultimately happens.

(RP date 2010-04-17) Rachel is called by Van, arrives on the scene and meets Haunt. He animates an origami worm with his powers, and Rachel manages to resist the urge to pounce it. Terry collapses, Van escorts her back to her cottage. Dawn learns that Rachel is a Deviser and is somewhat surprised. Dawn asks Rachel if she has heard from Nessa, but she has not heard the name before. Taira-Mai enters the scene and promptly frightens Rachel so much she hides behind Dawn.

(RP date 2010-04-19) Pinball and Rachel, sharing Rachel's little bed as has become common, manage to wake up Gauss, who is in Zoe's bed, Zoe nowhere in sight, without any of her own clothes. (This scene was never completed)

(RP date 2010-04-23) Van and Dawn… reconcile. With making out. After Van has been accosted by several girls in the same way on the same day. Rachel notices Van's condition on his return to Poe, and on a whim follows him with intent to tease him mercilessly. However, Rachel is surprised when he tells her about Becky's declaration that she loves Van; Rachel knows that Becky is dating Zoe. Van's continued explanation leads to Rachel concluding that the teasing potential is ruined; She broaches the possibility that Van's sudden popularity with the ladies is a glamour effect of his passenger. Van and Flora are unable to say for sure either way, while Kamapua'a refuses to comment. Rachel cannot explain why she appears to be immune to the effect, but says that Van needs to talk to the faculty about this, as soon as possible, and offers to accompany him when he does. Van turns the situation around and begins to tease Rachel about her crush on Pipeline. Van gives up on that subject, realising it is making Rachel upset; Rachel hugs him after offering her his friendship. (which she already had anyway) They leave the room, Rachel agreeing to check on Becky and Zoe… But Rachel finds herself entertaining the notion of Van as a boyfriend.

(RP date 2010-04-24) Rachel seeks out Dawn (while in her human form) to tell her about their suspicions regarding Van and his alleged glamour. After some time, it occurs to Rachel that she may not be immune to Van's alleged glamour at all. Dawn tries to gently-pry the secret of Poe from Rachel, but Rachel simply reveals that the secret is too dangerous, and protections covering Poe residents do not cover non-Poe residents like Dawn. Eventually the two girls retire for food.

(RP date 2010-04-24) Rachel visits the infirmary sporting dressings over her eye and covering her arm following a Deviser mishap. Rachel manages to completely underestimate Talcat's threat level, but soon learns how wrong she is when Allison manages to provoke him into a rage. Subtle manages to come along at precisely the wrong time. Rachel, Richard Grey and Subtle try to subdue Talcat, to no avail. Rachel's first and to-date-only PFG protects her from a lunge, but fizzles out afterwards. Tegan Wissa attempts to intervene, teleporting the kitten-sized Talcat into a secure container, but overreacts to what she perceives as Rachel's foxfire (it isn't) and runs off for a fire extinguisher without securing the container, leaving Rachel to try and keep it closed with just one hand. Ultimately Talcat makes a mess of Rachel's arms but injuries all around are thankfully-light. Alice Craft comes along with bandages over her eyes, fortunately after Talcat has been blinded and chased out of the clinic.

(RP date 2010-04-26) Rachel returns to the infirmary the day after the Rager incident to get her dressings changed again. Allison Next is cryptic. Rachel is unamused. Subtle is ill. Van comes to meet Rachel, and is a little surprised and guilty when he sees her injuries. Van's healing aura comes into play, but Subtle reacts to it poorly. Rachel believes she hears the medics mention burnout, explains a little of what happened the previous day, and the scene ends with Rachel sobbing into Van's chest.

(RP date 2010-04-30) Rachel and Van finally talk to a specialist regarding what they believe may be Van's glamour; However Rachel is dressed for a date in her human form, wearing a silvery dress, matching heels and handbag, and seems to believe this to be a date on some level, latching on to Van's arm en route. The scene is paused at this point.

(RP date 2010-05-01) A continuation of the 04-30 scene, Van asks Rachel if she's sure she's not affected by his glamour. After processing this, she realises how she chose to dress and how she's been acting and concludes "No[…]No I'm not [sure]." The two students speak to a specialist named Dr Verity, who informs them that Van does indeed have a glamour, but that it is 'non-coercive' and cannot be responsible for the actions of the ladies around him. She informs Rachel that Flora, and by extension Rachel herself, likely see right through Van's glamour; Rachel is confused however, asking "Why am I so… well… around Van?" Some talking with the doctor after Van leaves allows her to admit that she likes him a lot, enough that she wants to look her best for him. Dr Verity asks what Rachel's passenger thinks of him; Flora speaks for the first time 'on-camera', revealing a little about Spiderpig that she's been able to perceive through sight, though she can offer little information that he has not volunteered. Rachel leaves… and finds Van eavesdropping outside. She assumes he has heard everything, which he does not deny. The students go to the bistro together, where Haunt is already enjoying a meal. Van and Rachel engage in small talk for a while. (Rachel orders a diet cola without thinking, but without apparent ill effects) Haunt diffidently asks if the two are on a date; Rachel doesn't trust herself to speak, but Van manages to say "Not sure… Maybe?" to which Rachel gives a shy nod. After Haunt leaves, the balance of power shifts, Van becoming shy and nervous and unsure, thinking Rachel may react badly to the 'date' idea and Rachel being thoroughly amused by Van's worrying. Rachel gives Van a kiss; However this is noticed by Becky, who responds in typical Becky style by marching up to the pair, tossing chairs aside with her magnetic powers, and slaps Van. Rachel is nervous of Becky from this point on, although Van and Rachel are 'officially' a couple nevertheless.

Classes

Subject to revision at any time

Basic Mystic Concepts

Powers Theory

Basic Martial Arts

technologies classes of some variety; Exact options unknown at this time, so the exact classes are unknown.

Other classes TBA

Misc

On incomplete data

At time of first appearance in the RP, Rachel will not have been through powers testing just yet, save for the basic testing required for entry. Thus her codename has not yet been selected, and although her general powers are known, accurate ratings are not. The ratings listed above are what WILL be found, not necessarily what HAS been found. This is the same reason her affiliations, enemies and suchlike remain TBA, why she has no codename or MID, et cetera.

On Rachel's form preference

Not too terribly complex; Even though it makes her a quote-unquote 'freak', Rachel is fond of her vulpine forms because they have advantages that her human form does not. Her sense of hearing is extremely good for example; Though fennec-ears-human Rachel has powerful hearing, for some reason it is even more powerful when she is fully-vulpine. (though there is no apparent difference in the sensitivity of her hearing between her biped vixen and quadruped vixen forms) Similarly, though in her human form Rachel's sense of smell is much better than a human's, in her vulpine forms it becomes yet more pronounced. (Her night vision remains unchanged whether Rachel is in human or vulpine form) And finally, the thick coat of fur she has in her vulpine forms makes her very resistant to the cold of New Hampshire. She is hoping to eventually learn how to make her body vulpine but with a human face, to get the best of both worlds.

The fox spirit

Flora was born as a child to a family of kitsune who, for the most part, eschewed contact with humanity in favour of keeping to themselves. The particular type of kitsune into which Flora was born drew their sustenance from the natural energies of life; They were numerous and existed all over the world, although the energies of life tended to be concentrated within forests and thus, many of Flora's species could be found within forests. As such this species of kitsune encountered humanity much more infrequently than their cousins who gained sustenance from the likes of fire or lightning. For reasons which Flora does not yet know, although the kitsune of fire and air were almost exclusively of the vulpes vulpes, or red fox, genus, Flora's species of kitsune held many different types of fox within its numbers, including bat-eared foxes, grey foxes, crab-eating foxes, and of course fennec foxes. Although the majority of kitsune of one of these types tended to keep to themselves, intermating between kitsune from two different groups could and did happen infrequently, since as creatures of magic they were not limited by the laws of genetics. The offspring of such unions typically fell into the species of either their mother or their father, never a mixture, though the distinction is somewhat petty in this instance.
The unity of Flora's species continued for a good many centuries both before and after Flora's birth. However, around the 1800s the energies of the forests began to wane in terms of the sustenance that could be gained from them. These kitsune tried multiple methods for survival. As time went on some of these foxes became increasingly-desperate, and turned even to cannibalising other kitsune to try and stay alive. Binding themselves to Avatars was an avenue quickly-realised, but some were wary of binding themselves to another in such a way - after all, they would essentially lose control of their own fates by doing so. Was survival worth the cost?

Even this avenue was quickly-exhausted however. Kitsune who lived near populated areas were in a better position than others, but either way the number of Avatars that could sustain a kitsune was quite limited. Despite their close bonds, Flora and her immediate family were forced to seperate and scatter across the globe in order to find new ways to sustain themselves, all the while knowing that the odds were against them. Flora remains upset to this day that she will, in all likelihood, never see any of her family again.
It was in the country of England that Flora found a youngster with potential. For a little over a year she observed Richard, a child whose Avatar power had, as-yet, gone undetected, (it is probable that he had simply not been tested since the trait's manifestation) while she tried to determine if she could afford to bond with him. Flora was not eager to bond with someone who would abuse her power; She considerd death to be preferable to being a party to the sorts of atrocities of which a being of her power was capable. The traffic accident was unanticipated, and Flora found that she was forced to make a snap decision. She offered the boy the only thing that remained within her power; survival.
She was unaware of the changes her presence would induce, but there were two things she was; Firstly, she believed he could be trusted with her power; and second, that if she did not give it to him neither Flora nor Richard would survive. Now, while she was not precisely suicidal, she had seen most of what the world had to offer and was ready to give her life for a noble cause. To keep Richard alive would require virtually-all of her dwindling reserves of power, and she did not know if she would be able to survive. That she is still alive is a happy accident, and she is not terribly-concerned about being bonded to Rachel in a way she cannot control. She might have preferred it to happen under happier circumstances but she is not unhappy to be a part of Rachel's life - and truth be told, neither is Rachel.
It is worth noting that Rachel's endurance when using her magic, and the spirit's strength, are directly linked; as the spirit regains strength, Rachel's endurance improves. It is likely to be several centuries, possibly millennia, before Flora regains her full strength.
The spirit calls herself Flora. This is not her true name, nor is it her actual 'use' name; However, her 'use' name is not pronounceable by most, and Rachel even has problems wrapping her brain around those names. Thus, the spirit told Rachel to call her Flora.

Injuries

Couldn't think of a more appropriate heading to fit this under. Rachel has the resistance to injury of any normal teenaged girl - which is to say, nothing special. This becomes relevant with her shapeshifting ability. Any injuries sustained in one form do not carry over to another form. However, an injury sustained in one form will return whenever Rachel returns to that form. In short: If she breaks her leg in human form, her leg will be whole when she shifts to vulpine form, but the next time she shifts to human form her leg will be broken again.

Voice

Rachel has an almost generic-English accent under most circumstances, though with a slight Scouse twang if you know what you're looking for, and she is soft-spoken. If she has a Diedrick's episode, her Scouse twang frequently, but not always, comes out in full force, along with the dialect and the tendency towards profanity.

Clarissa

Rachel is quite protective of her older sister - a little ironically, given that Rachel is the younger of the two. She is always ready to drop everything to help her sister. She told Clarissa about Alice Craft's being TG, believing that having someone to talk to would help both of them.
Rachel is trying not to use her human form around Clarissa, as she fears it will make her sister feel even worse, or even make her resent Rachel. Little does she realise that Clarissa already knows.

Alleycat

Alice, when she learned that Rachel had outed her to Clarissa, was not too happy, but under the circumstances was not too upset. Rachel promised not to do so again without asking, but immediately turned around and asked if she could reveal the same in confidence to another Whitman TG she knew, (specifically Amanda Jones) though she did not identify this person to Alice. Alice agreed. As yet, Rachel has not acted on this.

Following the events of Empty Dreams, Rachel's shapeshifting abilities have taken a noticeable jump. Formerly she had no control over the presence of her tail, such that she still had a tail even when she was otherwise human in every way. Now however, in her human form she has no tails at all. She cannot make her tails appear in human form; However, she can now control her ears, such that she can shift her fox ears away and back at will while in human form. (In her vulpine forms she cannot do this. Or perhaps "won't".) Her shifting abilities may have changed in other ways, for example ability to take other forms and ability to shift clothing.
Her Wizard ability has improved as a result of these events too, but not tremendously. Whereas before she was a middling Wizard-2, now she is a borderline Wizard-3.
Rachel has also acquired an empathic bond of some variety with Subtle; The precise details remain unclear, but she can receive a general impression of his feelings and his direction regardless of their locations relative to one-another on campus. It is not currently known whether this bond works both ways or not.

General notes that aren't big enough to warrant their own section(s)

Just For Fun

Disclaimer; This section is purely for comedic value and does not necessarily represent Rachel's family background, past or future with any accuracy. A quote/plot point/etc appearing in this section is not an assertion that it or any quote/plot point/etc like it has ever occurred in any RP, nor that it ever will; Equally it is not an assertion that any quote/plot point/etc here will never occur.

Quotes

"Yeah, I have a better chance of scoring with self-absorbed, immature wankers than you do. Yay me."
"Don't mind me, I'm just plotting your death."
"No Daddy, you are not using the space mind-control laser on my boyfriend!"
"Rati! You power that plasma projector down now, mister! Don't make me get out the logic probe!"
"Dare I ask?"